Here comes the sun... (Happy October!)

Firstly: thank you for all your responses to my last post. That was a rough few days, and I feel so incredibly lucky to have such wonderful friends and family.

It's been a bit strange... perhaps I should blame it on sleep deprivation. But it feels like I'm always either ecstatic to the point of dancing down the street, or tired and sad to the point of sitting in the library, staring at the wall, and doing nothing. I didn't expect it to be easy, the first month at college... I suppose I'm still figuring out how to keep up some kind of healthy routine. I'll figure it out.

Something I've been struck by over the past month is how much little things really affect one... like how much just having some of my books in my dorm make it feel like home, or how much things seem out of place when you can't get the right music when you want it... does that make sense? Probably not. Don't mind me.

Well, it rained pretty much non-stop all of last week. We had our first glimpse of sun here yesterday, and it seems to be continuing into today. Now, I love rain-- I find it very soothing. But after a week of nothing else, I'm really for a few days of proper October weather: chilly, windy, and cloudless. And accompanied by the Beatles, of course. I don't know why, but every time October rolls around, I find myself in a Beatles mood... the same thing happens in December, except I start listening to the Harry Potter soundtrack non-stop.

I'm still a bit bothered by the fact that I'm considered an adult... anyway.

I've had to change my plans to visit Fort McHenry for my Historic Preservation class, since the ferry only goes there from April-September, and all other ways of getting there involve having a car.

Oops.

So, I'm going to see the USS Constellation tomorrow. I've been doing some preliminary research on it, and the history of the ship(s) seems really quite fascinating. There have actually been four ships by the name USS Constellation: the first was built in 1797, and torn apart in 1853. It was the first ship launched by the U.S. Navy, and the first to pull off a major victory against an enemy ship (namely the French frigate, L'Insurgente). The second ship (the one that is actually preserved in Baltimore's Inner Harbor) was built in 1854, and stayed on the Naval Vessel Register until 1955. There have been two other ships since then, but honestly, I'm much more interested in the first two.

The 1797Constellation

The 1854 USS Constellation

I'm going to be in a bit of a squeeze, time-wise... I have to write a paper about the site for my class on Monday, in addition to actually seeing the site, writing another 6-page essay for my English class... it's gonna be an interesting Sunday. I'm hoping to finish the English paper today, so I won't have to worry about it tomorrow, but I prefer to be pessimistic, so I'll (hopefully) be pleasantly surprised when I get to go to bed before 2.00am.

And on that note, I'm going to get back to work. I'll write more soon... until then, my love to all,

Tasha